mantis

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“
So, actually, I started working on what's called the mantis shrimp a few years ago because they make sound.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Any of various predatory insects of the family Mantidae, primarily tropical but including a few Temperate Zone species, usually pale green and having two pairs of walking legs and powerful grasping forelimbs. The mantis feeds on live insects, including others of its own kind. Also called mantid.
  2. Word History
    Although the female mantis has the habit of eating the male after mating, its name suggests a more benign activity. Mantis is from the Greek word mantis, meaning "prophet, seer.” The Greeks, who made the connection between the upraised front legs of a mantis waiting for its prey and the hands of a prophet in prayer, used the name mantis to mean "the praying mantis.” This word and sense were picked up in Modern Latin and from there came into English, being first recorded in 1658. Once we know the origin of the term mantis, we realize that the species names praying mantis and Mantis religiosa are a bit redundant.

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Examples (50)

  • So, actually, I started working on what's called the mantis shrimp a few years ago because they make sound. —  Sheila Patek clocks the fastest animals
  • What we know about the mantis is a rare bit of infor­mation, paid for with the life of the world's most brilliant entomologist Next month—another story by the author of TWILIGHT, Don A. Stuart. THE MACHINE presents a profoundly impressive and moving conception of the future. —  Astounding Stories January, 1935
  • He hesitated, and in that moment noticed that the mantis wasn't trying to strike him any more. —  SCOTT McGOUGH
  • Gernisavien stared in horror at overlapping scales, a face like a mantis's skull, great eyes that looked like pools of congealed blood, and fangs which dripped a thick mucus The Wizard said something that Gernisavien did not understand. —  Prayers to Broken Stones
  • A mantis is an insect with an exceptional range of vision. —  JamBase
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Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Greek, seer; see men-1 in Indo-European roots.
 

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